The Circle Breakers


 
 
 Patience Agbabi was born in London in 1965 to Nigerian parents, spent her teenage years living in North Wales and now lives in Kent with her husband and children. She has been writing poetry for over twenty years, and her first novel for children, The Infinite, the first in the Leap Cycle series, won a Wales Book of the Year Award. Like Elle, she loves sprinting, numbers and pepper soup, but, disappointingly, her leaping is less spectacular.
 
 Also by Patience Agbabi
 The Infinite
 The Time-Thief
 
 First published in Great Britain in 2023 by Canongate Books Ltd,
 14 High Street, Edinburgh EH1 1TE
 canongate.co.uk
 This digital edition first published in 2022 by Canongate Books
 Copyright © Patience Agbabi, 2023
 Chapter opener Infinity symbol © Shutterstock
 The right of Patience Agbabi to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
 British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication DataA catalogue record for this book is available on request from the British Library
 ISBN 978 1 83885 579 6eISBN 978 1 83885 580 2
 
 To the memory of my mum, Helen, for her mouth-watering vegan feasts, quotes from the King James Bible and passion for classical music.
 Prose = words in their best order;
 – Poetry = the best words in the best order.
 – Samuel Taylor Coleridge
 Unlike a great many painters who want to
 be musicians, musicians who want to be
 painters, and barristers who want to be
 journalists, I want to be nothing in the
 world except what I am – a musician.
 – Samuel Coleridge-Taylor
 Contents
 Chapter 01:00
 THE GHOST TRAIN
 Chapter 02:00
 THE GRANDFATHER’S PARADOX
 Chapter 03:00
 SONOS AND CHRONOS
 Chapter 04:00
 THE KEY NOTE
 Chapter 05:00
 GRANDMA IS NOT HERSELF
 Chapter 06:00
 STRENGTH TRAINING
 Chapter 07:00
 MILLENNIA’S MALEVOLENT MILLENNIALS
 Chapter 08:00
 MOON & SONS
 Chapter 09:00
 BRAINBUZZ
 Chapter 10:00
 COLERIDGE GIVES GRANDMA A GIFT
 Chapter 11:00
 DESTINY
 Chapter 12:00
 HIVES, HONEY AND HEXAGONS
 Chapter 13:00
 OTTO’S MOTTO
 Chapter 14:00
 MOI-MOI, CHIN-CHIN AND PUFF-PUFF
 Chapter 15:00
 THE THIRD NOTE
 Chapter 16:00
 RAILWAY TIME
 Chapter 17:00
 A TIME TO DIE
 Chapter 18:00
 THE TALKING DRUM
 Chapter 19:00
 PORTIA’S PORSCHE
 Chapter 20:00
 GRANDMA’S SECRET
 Chapter 21:00
 THE FINAL NOTE
 Chapter 22:00
 THE ENEMY WITHIN
 Chapter 23:00
 ROOT FOR THE FUTURE
 Chapter 00:00
 A TIME TO BE BORN
 Acknowledgements
 
 Chapter 01:00
 THE GHOST TRAIN
 Halloween 2022 is fun but Halloween 2050 will be fantastic. There’s a not-to-be-missed event at E-College-E, with a funfair and disco billed the best of the century. I’ve been conjuring it in my head to such fine detail I’ve barely slept all week. I don’t do fancy dress so I’m wearing my favourite off-white retro tracksuit with a cotton skinsuit underneath so it doesn’t itch at all. Under the right lights it will glow in the dark. 2050, here I come.
 It’s Monday the 31st of October 2022, 7.30 p.m., and The Infinites are in Room 4D at my school. It’s a perfect cube; the walls, floor and ceiling the same pale cream. I’m a chameleon, blending in with the decor. We just finished youth club, run by Mrs C Eckler, where we watched a black-and-white film about time-travel made by a Leapling film-maker. When I first joined the school they used the room exclusively for leaping, but they changed the rules at the beginning of my Tenth Year to allow us to use it for extracurricular activities too. Room 4D is named after the fourth dimension, space–time. The first three dimensions are height, breadth and depth.
 The Infinites are standing in a Chrono, a circle for leaping, in order of rank: MC2, GMT, me, Big Ben and Portia. We’re meeting Kwesi and Ama in 2050, the year they’re based. Portia and Ama had their Infinite ceremonies last month so now we’re seven strong.
 ‘Does anyone have a spare leap band?’ I say. ‘I left— Oh, my phone!’
 It’s the deep buzztone that means another Chronophone is calling, not a regular mobile. I grab my silver Chronophone from my bag in time to see the name GRANDMA. She must be calling from work. I press the green button and her face fills the screen, all big-eyes and blue-green zigzag headtie.
 ‘Elle, it is me, Grandma. Enjoy the party. Have a dance for me-o!’
 I smile. Grandma has trouble walking, let alone dancing, but she still likes to have a go.
 ‘Thank you, Grandma. Have you taken your tablets?’
 She gives me a twisted smile which means no. Grandma has to take tablets for high blood pressure but she often ‘forgets’ to take them.
 ‘Don’t turn into a toad,’ she says, which means be back by midnight.
 ‘Grandma, I’ll be back by 10.’
 I mean it. Some days I don’t like leaving Grandma alone for too long. She’s become a bit confused about conversations she thinks we’ve had. I’m worried her memory’s playing tricks on her.
 ‘Greet that your friend, GT.’
 Grandma has a soft spot for GMT because she’s vegetarian, but always says her name wrong.
 ‘I will, Grandma. She’s here, right next to me. She can see and hear you!’
 GMT leans over. ‘Greetings, Mrs Ifíè.’
 ‘Know thine enemy to defeat him. Godspeed!’
 I say, ‘Yes, Grandma!’
 and GMT says, ‘We sure will,’
 at exactly the same time.
 As soon as she’s gone, MC2 frowns at me.
 ‘What’s your gran on about? An’ since when did she keep a Chronophone?’
 ‘Nothing, really. Typical Grandma. She’s always quoting stuff from the Bible about good conquering evil.’ I pause. ‘When I promised to get her a Chronophone so we could stay in touch when I’m on a mission, it turned out she’s had one for years. She’d been hiding it in her room.’
 ‘What colour?’
 ‘Gold.’
 He raises his eyebrows. ‘Respect to Grandma. The gold came out in 2050; most reliable for a century. Your gran’s a dark horse, Elle.’
 Big Ben’s frowning now. ‘What’s that mean?’
 ‘Means,’ says MC2, ‘she